Carbase.co.uk feedback

sackedlunch23

Hi All,
I’m looking for experience people have buying from Carbase in Bristol. I’ve been reading through a lot of the threads but can’t find much. The car I’m interested in is an Audi A5 2.0 TDI Sportback, 2015, about 100,000 km on the clock.

Most specifically, I’d like some feedback on how people have found them to deal with, particularly whether they’ve needed to deal with them after-sales, and how helpful/un-helpful they were. They’ve been highly recommended by my brother-in-law, who bought a Qashqai there last year. He had some minor issues with electrics when he got home, and Carbase just told him to bring it to a Nissan dealership and they paid the dealer by credit card over the phone. I’m not sure whether they would be as obliging forking out to an Audi dealer. Also it’s a pretty narrow sample of opinions to be trusting them on.

With that kind of mileage after 3 years, I assume it’s been used as a fleet car up-to-now and at the end of its 3-year lease. I drive a fleet car myself at the moment and know it gets everything it needs on time. I also know that colleagues couldn’t care less about how they drive theirs as they’ve nothing invested in it. I would only be buying the car if I think it has been well looked after up to now, and will continue to take good care of it when I have it. I’d also have someone like George Dalton (who I’ve seen recommended here) take a look over it when I get it home. The scary part is whether there are major issues with it driving it off the lot.

It’s hard to make sense of a lot of their reviews online. They range from 1-star from people complaining about tyre pressure sensors going off on the drive home or the car having trouble after a year (with no idea of the type of car, driver behaviour etc) , to 5-star by people who have reviewed an hour after the purchase, or delighted to have gotten finance from them. In between of that there looks like genuine horror-stories and mainly happy customers. It’s hard to get a genuine sense of their service with all of that noise.

Has anyone bought from them and have feedback, good/bad/indifferent?

Are there any steps to take to avoid buying a car with major complications? I can live with a car not being spotless inside when I collect. What I can’t live with is a scenario of inheriting major and expensive complications.

Thanks in advance.

bazz26

OP, I think you are going about this the wrong way. Your putting the cart before the horse.

You need to have the car inspected in the UK before you buy it, not afterwards when you get it home as any problems found when you get it home are your problems unless you fancy bringing it back to the UK. The company who carries out the inspection should give you a proper detailed report of any issues the car has and the dealer needs to rectify as part of the sale and prior to collecting it. If feedback on the dealer's after sales service is generally poor then I'd tend to look elsewhere as they may not fix any issues the inspection show but may well tell you what you want to hear in order for you to turn up and not go home empty handed.

sackedlunch23

Thanks Bazz, you're right in that respect.

Looking at the AA, they offer the below for £202 for the make/model I'm looking for.

up to 206-point check for vehicles up to 15 years old
detailed physical inspection of the vehicle (mechanical and visible parts)
body exterior, electrical and interiors checks
corrosion protection
bodywork checks for previous accident damage
up to 10-mile road test (depending on time, traffic and road conditions

Do you think that could be expected to unearth most major issues with a car? Obviously the caveat is 'visible' parts. I'm not sure how flexible these supermarkets are in terms of getting the car into the shop for inspection and highly doubt they'll play ball with a road-test if they don't even allow the buyer more than a spin around the block.

bazz26

Have a look at Dekra too, I think they are cheaper than the AA but get recommended here alot. Normally as I understand it they will arrange with the selling garage to send their inspector to go to the car rather than bringing the car to them. However you would need to verify with the dealer that you are doing this. If the dealer doesn't allow this then walk away. The dealer will probably want a deposit to hold the car for inspection but I would expect a dealer to refund the deposit if the inspection recommends not buying the car for a serious issue. These inspections are normally very thorough and the inspector will normally call the buyer afterwards to go through their report so that you can ask them questions.

If spending that sort of money, I think you would be nuts not to have the car inspected professionally.

ravendude

On a related note, - is it still worthwhile getting an inspection on an "approved" car sold from a main dealer? Say a car 1 to 2 years old with < 15K mileage? Still worthwhile or unecessary?

Stallingrad

ravendude wrote: »

On a related note, - is it still worthwhile getting an inspection on an "approved" car sold from a main dealer? Say a car 1 to 2 years old with < 15K mileage? Still worthwhile or unecessary?

Yes and no. Odds are the car will be mechanically sound and warrantied but what you won't know before you travel is whether the car has had any paintwork, was it a smokers car, any trim rattles etc. Having bought a few one year old cars sight unseen each one was hiding some little secret, but it was never enough to stop the deal.